Lab Space: MU Life Science Incubator prepares expansion

The Missouri Life Science Business Incubator is set to add a second wing to its facility, according to Bill Turpin, president and CEO of the Missouri Innovation Center. The new wing is expected to take two to three years to complete and fill up with emerging businesses within three to five years.

Turpin says the expansion is necessary because the incubator has no more available wet lab space, or areas where chemicals, drugs and other biological materials can be tested.

“That means MU faculty and researchers have nowhere to go to work on their technology, even if they have funding,” Turpin says.

Even the incubator’s dry lab space, which is traditionally used for computational or mathematical analysis, is nearly full due to a new initiative by the incubator to offer the space to tech companies, which tend to scale faster than biology companies. Dry labs comprise 60 percent of the incubator’s lab space, with the remaining 40 saved for wet lab space.

The expansion would double the number of labs, from 25 to 50, and will include 60 percent wet lab space and 40 percent dry lab space.

Turpin says the incubator is currently seeking funding for the project from the Missouri Department of Economic Development, and an academic building plan outlining the wing’s necessity has been submitted to the University of Missouri.

“We knew from the beginning we would eventually need to expand, and so we built this first phase with that in mind,” Turpin says. “The building already has a place to hook on a new wing, and the land has already been allocated.”